CMMI Frequently Asked Questions and their responses from CMMI Consultant(s)

Search CMMI Consultant Blog

As CMMI Consultants you may be asked a question on how to implement Configuration Management in context of CMMI for Services as compared to the CMMI for Development? What are difference between Configuration Management done for CMMI for Development and CMMI for Services?

Configuration Management Process Area deals with the management of the work products and it involves their Identification, Control of their configuration (Version, Make, Model, etc.), Status Accounting (Listing, Version History, etc.) and conducting Audits.

Now if we analyze the CM Process Area in context of the CMMI Models i.e. CMMI for Service and CMMI for Development, we find that both Models have the same SGs and SPs:

SG 1 Establish Baselines

SP 1.1 Identify Configuration Items

SP 1.2 Establish a Configuration Management System

SP 1.3 Create or Release Baselines

SG 2 Track and Control Changes

SP 2.1 Track Change Requests

SP 2.2 Control Configuration Items

SG 3 Establish Integrity

SP 3.1 Establish Configuration Management Records

SP 3.2 Perform Configuration Audits

So now the question comes what is the difference in implementation of CM in context of these two CMMI Models?

The obvious difference is the scope of the CM Practices implementation.

In Software Projects, we deal with intangible work products and we have specialized tools (like Git, SVN, CVS, VSS, etc.) to handle the Configuration Management activities so we generally do not bother about the implementation of these SPs as most of them are taken care by the CM Tool.

But in Services Projects, the Configuration Items are tangible and require manual interaction for management of their configuration. Example of these items could be:

And to perform the CM activities we need to involve the Manual Registers or Excel sheets to track most of these items and need to update the items in these tools whenever there is a change in the property of that item.

So the tools or methodology of managing CIs changes in the CMMI for Services from automated tools in CMMI for Development to the manual inventory management.